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I'll probably stay up for the first two and then hit the sack... unlike Japan-Brazil, I doubt there is even the slightest chance of the PRC giving Japan a fight, especially after the Samurai got their wake-up call last night.

Kind of strange that Brazil is playing a second game before China plays their first.

I think unless if they were going to have two games in Japan on day one (which would have led to even more overlaps and tape delays), there was going to have to be a team that this would happen to.

It'll be interesting to see how the attendance for the non-Japanese games will be in Tokyo. I mean, in Asia it seems like the attendance plummets without the "home" team far more than even in North America.

I think Japan will have more in the non home-team games than Taichung will. In the '09 WBC, for example, the games without Japan had the crowds in the 12K+ range. Pretty small, but not the essentially-empty stadium that Taiwan has had in both the qualifiers and Netherlands-Korea. Although it is a little hard to compare between the round robin of the 2013 WBC round 1 and double-elimination of WBC '09 and the qualifiers....

I feel as if, in the future, whether it might be wise if the WBC has something like "dynamic pricing". Have tickets for non-marquee games be a bit cheaper than games featuring either the home team or big-name teams.

I'll see if I can catch a bit of Cuba-Brazil tonight, but otherwise I'll probably get some of Japan-China (10am is a manageable time). The timings aren't particularly convenient from Europe. I really do want to see Cuba, though, and the one game I watched today was excellent.

Also, I'm looking forward to seeing whether the Latino population of Miami's love of their home countries is greater than their hatred of Loria. Have to think that if the WBC hosting spots were given out this winter instead of mid last-season that Miami would NOT have been chosen.

If Korea winds up last in their pool, will they have to qualify for the 2017 classic?

One would think so based on what happened in the last tournament, although who knows, it's possible they might change the criteria, especially if Korea, say, goes 1-2 and is last only due to tiebreakers.

If Korea winds up last in their pool, will they have to qualify for the 2017 classic?

Probably, though it's almost impossible that they don't win the qualifier round, Taiwan won without even giving up a single run in all 3 game. Baseball is unpredictable if the two teams are within a reasonable margin of ability, but not if they're in completely different class

Probably, though it's almost impossible that they don't win the qualifier round, Taiwan won without even giving up a single run in all 3 game. Baseball is unpredictable if the two teams are within a reasonable margin of ability, but not if they're in completely different class

Yeah, the difference between Taiwan and Thailand was far, far, greater than the amount between Panama and Brazil... obviously.

The thing I don't like about double elimination is that sometimes the first game doesn't mean a whole lot, because most likely there will be a rematch. We saw this last WBC when Australia played Mexico. Australia won, but had to play Cuba, while Mexico won and got an essential freebie in South Africa. And so when Australia pulled off the upset, I just sort of shrugged and said "there will be a rematch anyway." Of course in round robin, you are often stuck with a situation where a team will have already been eliminated or clinched by the final game and has nothing to play for.

So, I think double elimination works better when the teams are fairly evenly matched, and worst when there is a clear best and clear worst team in the bracket. In that light, the round robin first round, double elimination second round makes pretty good sense.

I just don't now about D. Italy sucks, Canada was an embarrassment last tournament, and Mexico is decent but always seems in the second tier of teams rather than the first. I think DR and VEN are both potential champions and PR has certainly been stacked in the past...though I take your point about the talent loss. Shame that PR baseball is in such decline.